More good news on bacteriophages

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Regular followers of LSS will once again recall our interest in the problem of antibiotic-resistant pathogenic organisms(LSS passim) Humanity really has been at its worse with antibiotics. The initial advantage given by scientific discoveries in the 1940s has been lost. Like degenerate aristocrats squandering the family fortune, misuse by overprescription and mass distribrution in agriculture has led to the rise of deadly new resistant strains of microorganisms. If you want to know more, go the site of antibiotics research uk * linked below.

We salute the heroic efforts to develop new antibiotics. But, as we have noted before, there are other ways that should be tried as well. Bacteriophages are those little viruses which attack and kill bacteria. Funnily enough, they were being used against bacteria as early as the 1920s, particularly in places like Russia and Georgia. But because many of the papers were in languages like Georgian, and because along came antibiotics, they got overlooked in the West.

Now they are making a real comeback, and we at LSS are proud to have covered a tiny corner of what these amazing researchers have been up to. Latest good news arrives from the University of Leicester, England where Professor Martha Clokie and her team are producing phages to tackle organisms as diverse as Clostridium, Salmonella and Lyme disease. The last, carried by ticks on deer, can be a particularly devastating affliction for those who enjoy outdoor pastimes such as cycling and walking.

It’s good to see more and more examples of research popping up all around. Maybe not all of you humans are as bad as we say!

^{we thank Mr John Read of Buckinghamshire for this story}

Antibiotic Research UK | Fighting Antibiotic Resistance

Professor Martha Clokie | Research | University of Leicester

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